ENGRAVING COLOR GRAPHICS AND LOGOS

At GlassWithaTwist.com, we can certainly take your graphic and use it for engraving. However, please do note that glass only engraves in one color….frosted white. Colors will not translate, and all parts of the graphic will look the same when engraved on glass. For that reason, we generally recommend pure black and white (or single color) graphics. Some multi-color graphics can also make this transition easily….however, some others will not. Below are several examples to help illustrate this, showing some sample color graphics and then actual photographs of glass engraved with those graphics.

Although there are many colors in the above graphic, none of the colors touch or overlap each other so they can all be expressed in a single color without losing any of the details of the graphic. There is no problem whatsoever with a graphic of this sort, but please be aware that the engraved version will not possess the color of the original….everything will be frosted white.

There are technically three colors in the above graphic (red, white, and blue). Both the red and the blue can’t be engraved, or they would look the same on glass and the “All Night” text would disappear into the background circle. However, we were able to achieve a good result by removing the red color, leaving a two color graphic that then translates well on glass (just without color).

The above graphic depends on color to show the split box behind the text. When the color is removed, the box becomes uniform. When engraved, there isn’t a way for us to differentiate the red and the blue parts of the background rectangle, and they look the same on glass. As you can see, the engraved result on the right is perfectly fine….as long it is acceptable for the background rectangle to appear as a single color.

The above graphic is a good example of how some graphics can be modified to work for engraving purposes. Colors that overlap present a problem. If you need to be able to see the different colors to differentiate the details of the graphic, then it won’t translate well when engraved onto glass. If engraved without modification, the lettering in the above logo would blend in with the background stars, and it would be unreadable. However, we used this example to show how a graphic can be modified to make it work for engraving purposes. In the photograph version, you can see how we outlined the letters to differentiate them from the background stars. The result is a successful engraving, although of course the colors of the original graphic are not present.

We included this example to show a graphic that just won’t work well for engraving purposes. Obviously without color, the rainbow itself won’t translate onto glass. The arc shape will remain, but the individual colors will not. Worse, the black text (easily visible in the full color version) isn’t visible in the engraved version because it blends in with the background rainbow. Extensive modification might produce a better result…but in general, this is a type of color graphic that won’t translate well when engraved. There are too many overlapping colors, and a core part of the graphic (the rainbow) really needs color for it to make sense to the eye.

The bottom line? We can certainly accept your color graphic and use if for engraving. However, everything will be in frosted white when engraved, and some graphics will translate better than others. We hope these examples help to illustrate how various color graphics will look when engraved on glassware.